The studio wanted to go through the Lex Luthor casting process after the SAG-AFTRA strike. Warners already is in business with Hoult on Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2, and he also starred in the 2015 Warner Bros. blockbuster, Mad Max: Fury Road, which made over $380M at the global box office and won six Oscars.
Deadline reported last week that Venezuelan actress María Gabriela de Faría landed the role of villain The Engineer.
Hoult follows in the line of such actors as Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey and Jesse Eisenberg who’ve portrayed Luthor onscreen in the Warner Bros. Superman franchise.
Gunn selected Corenswet and Brosnahan as his main leads after months of audition tapes and in-person screen tests and before the actors strike but continued to be in prep on the movie.
Gunn, whose credits include the Guardian of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad and the Max series Peacemaker, is directing from his screenplay based on the DC characters. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The film is being produced by co-DC Boss Peter Safran (the Aquaman and The Conjuring films).
Superman: Legacy has been set for a worldwide release on July 11, 2025.
The project was announced earlier this year when Gunn and Safran laid out their plan for the first phase of this revamped slate and Superman: Legacy was front and center as the project that would help launch this strategy.
Hoult is repped by UTA, 42, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Warner Bros had no comment.
